Writes of Passage

file 29256

An eastern-central coastal province of China. It’s capital Nanjing/Nanking is 186 miles/300 km northwest of Shanghai. According to wiki – Jiangsu is the second smallest, but the fifth most populous and the most densely populated of the 22 provinces of the People’s Republic of China. Jiangsu has the second highest GDP of Chinese provinces, after Guangdong.

The well known cities are

• Nanjing
• Suzhou
• Wuxi
• Xuzhou
• Yangzhou

Nexus Holidays offer a tour that was hard to refuse: 6 nights of 4 stars hotel plus 3 meals a day, all for US$49 per person. Kid under 18 adds additional $200; plus tips for the guide US$48 per person ($8 x 6 days). P.S. This kind of tour becomes a main stay.

I first learned it from my cousin Don in VA which offered it at US$99, then my cousin Sophie in LA told me it’s only US$49. Since I’ve never traveled with my Jiujiu and family so I decided to join them even it’s inconvenient my already booked/planned schedule.

We took the newly minted CRH Beijing

Nanking and Nankin is the capital of Jiangsu province in China.

Nanjing was the capital for few different regiments or reigns over long period of time, but I’ve never heard it’s the jade capital, until we met our tour guide for the Nanjing leg of the travel.

He claimed that his father was one of handful expert in jade in China, and was invited overseas for conferences. He wears a jade pendant that he passed it around, let us see, touch and feel as the bus was in motion.
“There is a saying, 月下看美女，日下看美玉, it’s best to look at beauty under the moon and inspect a jade under the sun.” and he went on to educated us how to determine a nice jade:
1. 种 – clarity
2. 色 – color
3. 工 – cutting, craving skill
Oh, make sure there isn’t have bubble 气泡.

After lunch in Wuxi, we arrived in Nanjing in the early afternoon of Monday Aug 1. We rendezvous with the guide by the city wall, near the 江苏省文物博物馆 Jiangsu Province Culture/history Relic Museum where his Dad once worked, in charge of jade collection (?). We were first drove over to see the pride of China: 南京大桥 Bridge of Nanjing; upper deck for autos and lower deck for trains. It required no foreign experts nor materials. Purely made and built in China, by the Chinese. Now it felt old and crumbling. No matter. it’s the effort that count. After the bridge, we were deposited at the 夫子庙 Confucius Temple, then went to dinner at 向阳鱼港 Sunward Fishery Restaurant. The restaurant has many jade exhibits.
The following day, we were taken to the jade store first thing in the morning. Many heads of state visited and bought from here, we were told. Their business card reads:
南京旅游国际购物中心 – Nanjing Shopping Center For International Tourist
秦淮区晨光路39号 – located at 39 Chenguang Road, Qinhuai District
025.5233.1969

I’m not sure if the building has other divisions but we were at the second floor that sells jade. The 12 animal zodiac signs were asking for

The Confucius Temple in Nanjing 南京.

Did I see Sushi?